


Steal the Wallet of a Man With a Gun

by wirewrappedlily



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Assumed Character Death, F/M, Gen, Roadtrips, Sisterhood, canon-compliant character death, getting the hell out of Starling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-03-24
Packaged: 2018-03-12 06:59:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3347846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wirewrappedlily/pseuds/wirewrappedlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm not a hero." </p><p>"You've saved my brother. You couldn't save him this time...but you saved him more than anyone else ever has."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Prince

It wasn't the first time she'd run. 

That had been years ago, to escape her past and start again. 

She had no one else; there was no one she needed but her. So she could run and run until there was a life she wanted to keep. 

Working for Queen Consolidated had been a surprise; getting involved in the Hood's crusade had been an adventure. And now leaving was a salvation. This place held too many mistakes for her, and she wasn't someone anyone really needed. The bright, quirky IT girl. She'd helped as much as she could--and lost Oliver for her troubles. Lost Sara and half of the goddamned Glades. She was smart enough that she could get a job wherever she went; and she knew that she could easily fade away once she let the alias of Felicity Smoak go up in flames. Her mother had done the exact same thing for years, and Felicity had known when she'd gone back to the name on the birth certificate that there was a good chance she was just going to turn out to be as flighty as her mother was. 

She cut her hair short and got rid of her glasses, packing up sweats and jeans and avoiding for the life of her the dresses and skirts that she'd loved so much. She debated dyeing her hair, but it could wait until she'd left city limits, instead wrapping a scarf around the crop and throwing on a leather jacket she hadn't worn since high school, shoving her feet into boots and getting out before she found out she had anything more to lose. There was a note to Diggle and Roy in the lair, and she couldn't think of another person who would so much as blink an eye for her leaving, so she simply did. When the bus stopped at a truckstop on the edge of the county, the scarf was replaced with a baseball cap, her phone was tossed into the trash, and she started playing with names to see which one would fit. Getting a burner phone was easy as breathing, and she dialed a familiar number, hoping that her escape could take a couple of days instead of being orchestrated in one, great rush. She could go to California or to Maine and lay low with friends who'd known her long enough that even if they didn't approve, they understood. Briefly, she considered heading to Mexico, or to Canada. From there, she could get on plane and really disappear. Forging a passport wasn't as difficult as it should've been when she turned her mind to it. She didn't want to go that far, though: didn't want to give up, yet. She couldn't. Some stupid part of her still had hope, no matter how foolish that was. 

Three days into her aimless wandering, a petite brunette sat down next to her, and Felicity nearly choked in shock at seeing Thea Queen look up at her from under her dark sunglasses. "I don't think we properly met before..." Thea smiled, "you're Felicity Smoak, and you were in love with my brother." Felicity couldn't say anything, but she didn't need to, "John Diggle's told me a lot about what happened with Oliver, and your part in it. You disappearing sent up a few red flags." Thea looked pointedly out of the window beside Felicity, and she didn't have to look to know that Roy was riding a motorcycle beside the bus to keep up. 

"I've always wanted to see the Grand Canyon..." Felicity offered hesitantly, biting her lower lip. 

"I hear Arizona is gorgeous...we should go there, too." Thea whispered by way of acceptance. 

She reached over, and Felicity found herself folding her fingers with Thea's, the sorrow hidden behind Thea's glasses matching the sorrow that Felicity was hiding with her reddened hair and her baseball cap pulled low. "We should send Roy home." 

Thea nodded, "Next stop, and we'll send him home." 

Felicity and Thea fell into silence, their hands intertwined on the armrest between them; their grief shared between them, too. "He loved you, you know. More than anything." 

Thea's jaw twitched, her eyes going steely like Oliver's would, "If he'd loved me, he wouldn't have lied." 

"He did that to protect you, you know." Felicity told her gently, "The less you knew, the less likely it'd be that you'd--" 

"That's bullshit." Thea replied, but her hand was still steady in Felicity's. 

Felicity sipped a breath, hanging her head, "You're right: it's the answer he'd give." She licked her lips, wincing inwardly at how chapped they'd become, "He didn't tell you because if you knew he was a killer, he thought you'd never be able to look at him again." 

Thea took a breath that almost sounded choked, blinking and releasing a tear Felicity knew she hadn't meant to. 

"Who told you, by the way? Was it Merlyn?" 

"No, it was Roy. When you disappeared, he freaked out, and had to let the cat out of the bag before I had him institutionalized." 

"I left goodbye notes, they were works of art, why did not one bother reading them?" 

"Oh no, they read them. They were worried that you said goodbye than anything else." 

"I couldn't just leave them--" 

"Why did you leave them at all?" Thea cut in, her dark eyes narrowed and her pixie features pulled together in scrutinization. 

"It was selfish, but I'm not the heroing type." Felicity muttered, casting her gaze down because she couldn't help picking out the bits and pieces of Oliver in Thea's gazes and expressions. "I was the wrong choice in the first place. I couldn't stop the Undertaking; didn't have a hope against Slade--and now...now Oliver is gone, and none of it matters anymore." 

Thea's brows knit, "But...Laurel told me about what you did to stop Slade. And I know you were in the lair under Verdant during the quake: you appeared suddenly on the security cameras during the evac, and I didn't understand it until Roy told me who you were. You were there, helping my brother, even when the world was falling in around you." 

"I'm not a hero." 

"You've saved my brother. You couldn't save him this time...but you saved him more than anyone else ever has." 

The look of guilt shadowing the lines of Thea's face were so like Oliver's that Felicity couldn't stop herself, squeezing Thea's hand gently before simply giving in and pulling her into a hug. "He loved you, Thea. And even if he wasn't Oliver, he'd have a hard time saying how much." Thea let out a teary laugh, and Felicity just held on. 

Mile markers flew past, and they sent Roy home even though they knew he wouldn't go. The further away from Starling Felicity got, the more she could see; the more she could see to regret. 

"So what should your new name be?" Thea asked as the night drifted by them, her in one set of seats and Felicity in the other, both of them draped as comfortably as they could get on a bus and each bartering with the comic sections of papers they'd picked up along the way. "And if you start referencing Thelma and Louise, we should really get a better mode of transportation." 

Felicity snorted, "Like that convertible would really be any better," she sighed; the amusement gone as soon as it'd come, "the normal rules of aliases are to keep your first name in order to be trained to react to it when it's called." 

Thea cocked an eyebrow at her over the section of paper. 

"Yeah, I know: I don't want to be Felicity anymore, so I should really have done with that. So, let's see..." 

"Something...with edge. You don't belong in the shadows, so it can't be anything too plain." 

Felicity coloured, shaking her head fondly, "Thank you, but I think being background to the more interesting players might actually be a good change of pace for me at this point." 

Thea narrowed her eyes at her, pursing her lips. "You don't belong following along behind anyone, Felicity. Let alone Oliver."

Felicity shrugged, "I was willing to follow him, though. I would've been happy to follow him."

"Yeah, but he didn't deserve you, and you deserve so much more than he could've given you. I know that much. I know my brother, and I loved him, but he wouldn't have deserved you before he disappeared, and you deserved more than Oliver when he was torn between being the Arrow and being Oliver. Oliver...changed Oliver, without the burden of the Arrow or any of that...he might've deserved you. But you don't deserve someone by halves." 

Felicity's throat clicked as she swallowed, blinking back tears and trying to find something more to say than thank you. 

Thea shook her head that nothing needed to be said, leaning forward and patting her hands where they were folded on her lap, reaching into a plastic bag and digging for a pack of Nerds, pouring some into Felicity's palm before sitting back and pouring some out for herself. She picked through the colours idly, swinging her leg as she leaned back to being draped over the seats. Their next stop rolled towards them, and Thea looked over at her, one brow cocked, and finally Felicity was ready to let the anonymity of the bus pass. Thea and she shouldered their way off the bus, Felicity locating a car rental as Thea picked over brochures, humming to herself as she wandered. 

Felicity was caught suddenly, Thea's sudden halt in her swinging, dancelike movements instantly seizing her attention. 

Laurel Lance stood in front of Thea in jeans and a battered t-shirt, smiling just slightly at them both, one backpack strap hanging off her shoulder. "Mind some company?" 

Felicity was at Thea's side in an instant, the two of them sharing a look, "We're not going back." Thea told her. 

"Not yet." Felicity allowed. 

Laurel shrugged, tilting her head in a way that felt like a dare, "I'm on a temporary sabbatical. I'd wanted...after graduation...to go on a roadtrip with Sara." 

Thea and Felicity looked at one another, and the growing feeling of sisterhood solidified between them, "Here are the rules: no working out, no mention of a diet, and we don't go back to Starling until we all want to go back." Thea threw out quickly, offering her hand to seal the deal. 

Laurel smirked, nodding decisively, "I actually have my dad's old truck parked in the lot. I already have cupcakes." 

Felicity and Thea grinned, "Let's find a motel and get some damn beer. I need to get the bus smell out of my hair before my nose gets any more damaged." Laurel laughed as Thea crinkled her nose, looping an arm through Felicity and Laurel's, leading the way. 

"Beer's actually really good for your hair." Felicity told them, "It's rich in proteins and vitamins, but you have to wash with it, drinking it is just for fun." 

Laurel laughed softly as she held open the door from the bus depot for them, pointing the way to the car lot. "It's tempting, but that would be a waste of beer." Thea sighed. She climbed into the back of the truck, laying over the bench seats and opening one of the thirty brochures she'd grabbed, twitching her short hair back from her face. "Oh, Laurel? Turn your phone off. That way the boys won't be able to try to call us back." 

Felicity leaned her head against the window, closing her eyes and enjoying the slightly less jarring ride the truck gave as opposed to the bus. Laurel's phone gave the chime that it was shutting down, and Felicity sighed, letting her eyes drift closed for now. 

She knew she wasn't asleep, but she also wasn't awake. She was drifting between the two, her thoughts taking on a life of their own. The brief moment she'd had hope with Oliver felt like a dream, and his death had made it a nightmare. She couldn't handle what it was like to know, even for a moment, what it would have like. She knew she should open her eyes once the car stopped moving, stopped running, but she felt like she'd been lost in a bog. Her door opened with a gentle click, and she felt her seatbelt give, a hand gently placing her arm around shoulders that had long hair hanging over them as she was picked up with barely a grunt of exertion. Laurel carried her into one of the motel rooms, laying her on the bed and carefully slipping her boots off her feet before sneaking to the room she and Thea would share, leaving Felicity to the memory of a press of lips on her forehead, and a solid body pulling her close.


	2. Sisters

Thea sat cross-legged with Laurel on her bed, studying Laurel's every twitch as she shuffled a deck of cards they'd gotten at the gas station when they'd gone to get something to eat. 

"Why are you here?" Thea finally asked. 

Laurel looked up, pulling her hair off of her shoulders carefully before she started dealing the cards, "For the same reason you are; for the same reason she is. So much has happened in Starling that it's barely home anymore, and I can't bring myself to pretend like it is." 

Thea looked down at her cards, "I'm not here because of Starling. I'm here because of Felicity. Because she's worth chasing." 

"You think you'll be able to bring her back." Laurel observed, arranging her cards. 

"I'm not here to bring her back. I'm here to try to make her feel better." 

"Why? You barely know her. I know you barely know her, because I barely know her. Oliver--" 

"Oliver loved her, I know that much. And, right now, that's all I need to know." Thea's dark eyes were burning, willful, and Laurel had never admired Thea like she found herself in that moment. "He kept her out of our lives because including her into them would make it impossible for him to put space between them." 

Laurel licked her lips, taking a deep breath, "He needed space, didn't he? Or else..."

"He thought that he couldn't be a human and a hero at the same time." Thea muttered, sighing, "Like an idiot." 

Laurel snorted, shaking her head, "But think about it, Oliver's lost Tommy, Sara--" 

"Our mother--yes, I know. I know it's dangerous, I know that he'd do anything to keep Felicity out of danger, but denying his humanity means he'd've burned out. He was barely more than a shell of himself anyway, Laurel." 

Laurel couldn't argue that, laying out a bet of her Nibs carefully and looking at Thea over the top of her cards. Thea grabbed the pack of marshmallows she'd coveted, calling the ante with a smirk. 

"So, where are we going next?" 

"You mean after we visit the world's largest rubber band ball and go see the alligators?" 

"The world's largest rubber band ball?" Laurel asked, voice coloured with disbelief. 

"And I think we should take Felicity out to a Cuban bar and get her drunk on tequila and dancing to something that would be considered 'wild'." 

Laurel smiled lop-sidedly, dealing out cards for their draws, "What about the pint of ice cream each and the marathon of shitty romances?" 

Thea wrinkled her nose, "I don't think wallowing's the best bet. Rebound's the more likely cure."

Laurel hummed non-committally, biting her lip as she looked over her cards and up at Thea. When Thea had been younger--just Oliver's little sister, and not a strong and powerful fighter who could both own a business and be a powerhouse--it would have been enough of a ploy to make her think Laurel didn't have her hand. Now, though, she simply smirked, a glint of knowing in her eyes that pinned Laurel right there. 

"She's not like me, and I get that, I really do, but when has wallowing ever helped anyone?" 

"When she's not simply wallowing. She needs to mourn, too." Laurel took a deep breath, bracing herself for broaching the subject, "Thea, you and I...we've already mourned Oliver once. We'd lost him for a long time, and it doesn't make this any easier, but it's a pain we've kind of gotten used to." 

Thea nodded, laying down her royal flush to Laurel's sigh. "Felicity is running to forget, Laurel. Making her mourn is only going to drive her into running from us. She won't rebound, and we both know that, but if she feels like forgetting might help, I want to be there to catch her if she goes too far to try." Thea gave Laurel a slightly pointed look, though it was really without heat. They'd both been down that road, fueling the will to forget with anything they could. Thea and Laurel both knew, and the pair of them, for as much as this sisterhood with Felicity was, were utterly unwilling to let history start repeating. 

"Do you ever wonder what happened on that island?" Thea asked, sitting back with her marshmallows and Nibs, sighing. 

"Every damn day." Laurel answered easily, shuffling the cards. "Those scars..." 

Thea hummed, looking down at her hands. "I only got to see once, for a second, but they...it was like seeing a horror movie written out on skin." 

Laurel nodded, her eyes distant. "Felicity probably knows." 

Thea sat back against the pillows behind her, chewing idly on a Nib, "It's...a little bit mindblowing. How much he loved her and how bad he was at doing it." 

Laurel snorted, "He went from being playboy Oliver to being the masked avenger fighting for justice--" 

"Which he was also not the best at." 

"--it only stands as a pretty good picture of what not to do if you fall in love with a woman who you actually have to depend on." 

Thea shook her head at her brother, frowning, "I never understood how Oliver could go from drawing us all close to pushing us all as far away as possible. Even taking the Arrow thing into account, it doesn't make sense why he would--" 

"It was Oliver, Speedy. He had worse mood swings than a pregnant woman even before he got all life-and-death." 

It coaxed a laugh, Thea looking up at the dingy ceiling, "Do you remember that time you and he got into it over how badly he behaved under the influence of Tommy? And you got me and we locked ourselves in his room playing his video games way too loud, flinging glitter and painting nailpolish murals on the wall." 

"He was so mad." Laurel laughed, "I thought he was gonna strangle me." 

"You?! I half-thought he'd decapitate all my dolls." 

"That was the most fun I've ever had." 

Thea laughed, throwing a marshmallow at her, which Laurel caught in her mouth with a ferocious grin. Laurel reached over, giving Thea a hug. "I missed you, Laurel." 

"I missed you, too, Speedy."

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where I'm going with this, I just wanted something better than freakin' Oliver showing up and being a butt again.


End file.
